Saturday, August 22, 2015

Return to Rondeau

It was time to check out Rondeau this morning, as I have not been there in three weeks. It was nice to check things out in the unusually nice weather for a Saturday.

I did find a couple of pockets of migrant passerines, but it was generally rather quiet.
First stop was Dog Beach where I noted thousands of gulls out on the lake. Most were too far to pick out anything of note. Only a few, mostly Bonaparte's, were in close.

I did not see any shorebirds along the beach except for a couple of Spotted Sandpipers. Dog Beach is a good spot to check as there is a little pond there that it fenced off to protect any Fowler's Toads and it may attract shorebirds.

One pocket of warblers along south point contained several Tennessee and Chestnut-sided Warblers.

Later on I picked out Blackburnian, Canada, Nashville and Bay-breasted.
Lots of Pee Wees and Least Flycatchers are still around and some Yellow-bellied are moving through.

Merlin on SPT

After 4 hours in Rondeau, I headed up to Blenheim Lagoons. It was generally quiet as well! A couple of Baird's Sandpipers were with other shorebirds (and too many Killdeer!) in the sprinkler cells.

About a dozen Redheads are still hanging around in the ponds.

Since it is late August, I decided to go over to Thamesville to check for rubyspots. Smoky Rubyspots, rather uncommon in Ontario, can be found at the old bridge over the Thames south of the village.
Both American Rubyspot and Smoky Rubyspot associate together here. Ebony Jewelwing are here as well.
Smoky Rubyspots can vary in darkness depending on geographic location.

It is a bit difficult to get close to them due to the steepness of the riverbank, so photos were taken at a distance.